Performance Analysis of a Linear Gaussian- and tanh-Apodized FBG and Dispersion Compensating Fiber Design for Chromatic Dispersion Compensation in Long-haul Optical Communication Networks

Abstract

This paper investigates a novel compensation technique of dispersion effect mitigation using a combination of three- and four-stage-apodized fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) and dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) designs. Two designs using three-stage and four-stage FBG and DCF in combination have been proposed and compared for their performance in mitigating chromatic dispersion effects at 100 km SMF. The performance of each design has been evaluated using Q-factor results using linear Gaussian- and tanh-apodized fiber Bragg gratings. Each profile manifested different Q-factor results over a range of 5 dBm, 7.5 dBm, and 10 dBm of CW laser power over FBG grating lengths from 4 mm to 8 mm. The results obtained using the three-stage and four-stage FBG and DCF designs showed that an apodization profile using a tanh function can be used successfully with FBG lengths from 4 mm to 8 mm, regardless of the CW launched power. In contrast, the results using a Gaussian apodization profile for three- and four-stage FBG and DCF designs are applicable to FBG lengths from 5 mm to 8 mm. Designs using three-stage FBG and DCF generated higher Q-factor results than designs using only four-stage FBG and DCF, regardless of the launched power. The highest Q-factor of 18.58 was obtained for three-stage tanh-apodized FBG and DCF used in combination for an FBG length of 6 mm. The highest result obtained for a three-stage Gaussian-apodized FBG and DCF design was a Q factor of 17.13 using an FBG length of 8 mm. The proposed method was also compared to current similar works and can be successfully implemented in long-haul optical communication.